Guerrilla Movements in Latin America

Report Outline
Guerrilla Activity in Latin America
Theory and Practice of Guerrilla War
Conditions Favoring Latin Guerrillas

Guerrilla Activity in Latin America

Guerrilla activity in Latin America, supported in most cases by the government of Cuban Premier Fidel Castro, is causing deep concern in Washington. President Johnson and Soviet Premier Alexei N. Kosygin are reported to have discussed Cuban aid to Latin American guerrillas during their meetings at Glassboro, N. J., in late June. Johnson, according to Vice President Humphrey, told Kosygin that the United States “took a very dim view” of Cuba's export of arms and activists to neighboring countries. Kosygin was asked to take up the matter with Castro in Havana—and, Humphrey said, “he did, and very firmly.”

Johnson's feelings about Latin American guerrilla activity are shared by Congress. In a report issued July 3, the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Inter-American Affairs noted that “The new Castroism, reduced to essentials, holds that present ‘neo-colonialism’ in Latin America, ‘under the leadership of Yankee imperialism,’ forecloses the peaceful road to power in most of the area.” It follows, in that view, that “Prolonged armed conflict is …the only possible revolutionary strategy,” and that Latin American revolutionaries “must make guerrilla warfare their principal mode of violence.” The subcommittee concluded that “Guerrilla activities which have taken place in the past few months in several areas of Latin America indicate the situation bears close scrutiny.”

Forthcoming Meeting of Latin Revolutionaries

The House subcommittee added that a meeting in Havana of the Latin American Solidarity Organization, July 28–Aug. 5, “needs to be closely watched.” The Cuban-sponsored solidarity organization has been described as a sort of counterpart of the Organization of American States. Formed after the so-called Tricontinental Conference of January 1966, L.A.S.O. consists of representatives of Communist movements in the various Latin American countries. The forthcoming meeting will have as its theme the injunction that “The duty of all revolutionaries is to make revolutions.”